World News
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Can an Israeli and a Palestinian restaurant coexist peacefully in the shadow of Columbia University?
In the fall of 2023, in response to protests following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and Israel’s invasion of Gaza, Columbia University closed its wrought-iron gates. Since then, the Ivy League school in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights neighborhood has rarely left the news cycle. With the encampments, student occupation of Hamilton Hall, police in riot gear, congressional…
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Romania’s secret police trailed a Jewish photographer. Decades later, their files have become a film.
(JTA) — BERLIN — He had wild hair and wore jeans. He was American — and Jewish. He had a camera. That was enough to trigger surveillance by the notorious secret police of communist Romania, the Securitate. Now, 41 years after photojournalist Edward Serotta boldly stepped behind the Iron Curtain, we can see just how obsessed…
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Avraham Burg, longtime fixture of Israeli left, meets Tucker Carlson on his own turf
(JTA) — Tucker Carlson has set off alarm bells among many Jewish groups and even some conservative allies by hosting conspiracy theorists, grilling the U.S. ambassador to Israel and dabbling in sinister-sounding theories about Benjamin Netanyahu and Chabad. But on Monday a notable Israeli opted to appear on Carlson’s show: former politician and left-wing figurehead…
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King Charles named patron of British Jewish security nonprofit following ambulance attack
(JTA) — King Charles has been named the first-ever patron of a British Jewish security nonprofit, a move announced in the wake of an arson attack that targeted four ambulances owned by a Jewish volunteer emergency service in north London. The Community Security Trust, Britain’s main antisemitism watchdog, announced that King Charles had accepted the…
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After decades, Iran-linked Manhattan skyscraper yields $318M for terror victims
(New York Jewish Week) — For nearly two decades, the families of victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism have watched a 36-story Manhattan skyscraper generate millions in rental income for the Islamic Republic while their court judgments against Iran went unsatisfied. On Monday, amid the Israeli-American war against Iran, that wait finally produced a result: a $318…
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Meet Karin Prien, the woman who could become Germany’s first Jewish president
(JTA) — Living in Amsterdam in the years after World War II, Karin Prien’s parents’ bookshelves were lined with the works of Jewish authors like Philip Roth, Saul Bellow and Isaac Bashevis Singer. When she was a young child and her family moved from the vibrant and multicultural city of Amsterdam to Neuwied, a small…
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Sheriff who responded to Temple Israel attack faces online backlash
(JTA) — During a press conference last Thursday, organized to address rising antisemitism in the wake of the ramming attack on Temple Israel in Detroit earlier this month, the Oakland County sheriff who helped organize the police response to the incident announced the arrest of what seemed like the latest perpetrator: an individual who had…
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Who is the new ‘terror group’ claiming responsibility for antisemitic attacks in Europe?
(JTA) — Two minors have been arrested in connection with a car burning in the Jewish quarter of Antwerp in what is being treated as an antisemitic attack, Belgian prosecutors say. The two suspects were arrested shortly before midnight Monday, just minutes after setting the vehicle on fire. Prosecutors also say the investigation includes a…
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How our Yiddish group uses the Forverts podcast to learn the language
When the Iowa City Yiddish Group began meeting at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was one of the absolute beginners. Six years later, I lead the enthusiastic group of some 12-15 retirees and produce lesson plans for each class that incorporate a variety of activities to promote listening and Yiddish speaking skills. Each…
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CA Gov. Newsom says he regrets apartheid comment, ‘reveres’ Israel in new interview
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a new interview that he now regrets his use of the word “apartheid” earlier this month, clarifying a comment that had ignited a backlash among Jewish Democratic supporters. But in a fuller overview of his feelings about Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Newsom — a likely 2028 presidential…
